1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to orthopedic surgery and, more particularly, to devices, systems, and methods for performing spinal surgery.
2. Background of Related Art
The correction of spinal deformities often requires stabilization and fixation of vertebrae in a particular spatial relationship. Typically, a plurality of bone pins, anchors, cables, hooks, or screws are placed in the vertebrae and are interconnected by one or more spinal rods to maintain a predetermined spatial relationship between the vertebrae. Such devices may be permanently implanted in the subject or, alternatively, may subsequently be removed when no longer needed.
Certain deformities of the spinal column, e.g., severe scoliosis of the spine, require considerable correction. The use of conventional devices for such spinal correction procedures may necessitate prolonged surgery and/or a series of separate surgeries. For example, positioning and connecting rigid screws and connecting rods using conventional instrumentation requires multiple connecting and positioning steps in order to stabilize and fixate the vertebrae in the desired position. These steps may be performed during a single, prolonged surgery, or, in some cases, may need to be broken up into a series of separate surgeries.
Further, conventional rigid screws and connecting rods do not provide any degree of flexibility, thus making manipulation and/or repositioning of the spinal vertebrae prior to locking the connecting rods and screws to one another more difficult. More recently, in an attempt to facilitate the introduction and locking of the connecting rods when building a spinal construct, polyaxial screws have been employed. However, while these polyaxial screws may facilitate attachment of the connecting rod thereto, polyaxial screws and other similar flexible connections may provide too great a range of motion for use in procedures that require the range of motion to be restricted to only uniplanar or monoaxial movement of the connecting rod relative to the screw.